User blog comment:MentalZ/Valentine's Day/@comment-1222705-20110212173308/@comment-71.199.7.48-20110213223412

This is mostly true: But recently the romantic association of St. Valentine's day was discovered to be the result of one Geoffrey Chaucer, a noted author who in one of his books constructed the entire idea of the holiday, which rapidly spread among British and American culture in just a few years. Most people simply assumed there was a meaning behind the holiday they hadn't considered, and therefore the idea of Valentine cards, chocolate, became the idea. It wasn't really considered a major holiday, and most traditions weren't practiced generally until the card companies and candy companies started to publicize it as a big deal, much in the same way Diamond companies created the idea of diamonds for engagement rings. In fact many of our cultural traditions stem from corporations publicizing things to get people to spend money. St. Valentine's Day is just one example.